


let the light guide your way

by Quoth_the_Raven_Nevermore_Nevermore



Category: X-Men - All Media Types, X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) - Fandom, X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Old Men In Love, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-09
Updated: 2015-05-09
Packaged: 2018-03-29 16:20:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3902815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quoth_the_Raven_Nevermore_Nevermore/pseuds/Quoth_the_Raven_Nevermore_Nevermore
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>" I'm tired, Charles."</p><p>Or, once a year Erik visits Charles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	let the light guide your way

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Wiz Khalifa's song 'See You Again.'
> 
> Inspired by this post on tumblr: http://seadeepspaceontheside.tumblr.com/post/100049433225/si-un-jour-la-vie-tarrache-a-moi-si-tu-meurs-que

 

Slowly, methodically, he got dressed.

Today he abandons the cape and the helmet for jeans and soft leather shoes.

They're at one of their more permanent safe houses and he grabs the keys to a sleek black car. Once he might have flown to enjoy the spectacle of it all, to be fearless and to be young, but he's found that he enjoys the calm that driving brings.

The journey passes relatively quickly and he's careful to not look like a threat as he approaches the school. He parks the car in the circle out front and pockets the keys

There is a weeping willow that guards the far parts of the grounds, a massive thing that has largely been allowed to grow uninterrupted and as such provides a great deal of shade.

The going is slow, and he is very much aware that he is no longer a young man. Today his bones sing symphonies to each other as they creak and crack.

Finally, he reaches the tree.

He stands there as he has for the last ten years and stares for a moment. Then, he sighs and sits. It isn't as easy this year, and the grass is still wet. He can't find it in himself to care.

"Hello, Old Friend," he says, one hand idly playing with a blade of grass the other caressing the cold stone. "Happy birthday. It's hard to believe that it's already been a year."

The wind ruffles his hair, the whoosh echoing in his ears, soft and kind, and unbearably sweet.

"You're sister's well. I haven't spoken with her in awhile but the measures she's pushing through the house are impressive. You should be very proud of her. I suspect she'll be by later today."

Charles hadn't been in Erik's mind in years when he'd died. As things had gradually improved for mutants — as they aged — their interactions had grown farther apart. There were letters quite often and chess games on neutral ground but Erik hadn't felt Charles mind against his in a very long time when he felt Charles tentively reach out —as if Erik could ever have refused him this— and grasp his mind.

He could feel how tired he was, how scared. How it was taking everything he had to span the distance between them. He doesn't remember much but he knew that in the end it had been Charles comforting Erik. Until suddenly that warm presence in his mind was just gone.

Once there had been a young man that kissed Erik up against the tree. Now, decades later, there is only Erik raging at the unfairness of it all. He's started to wonder as the days get longer and as he gets older what he could have changed. In the other future they were together in the end and Erik almost wants that. Their paths had diverged but they'd always somehow made it back to each other, and isn't that a better end then what they got here?

He chuckles softly, "I did always think we would go out together, Old Friend. I never considered a path where one of us was left behind. But you always were a step ahead of me."

"I'm thinking of retiring," he says a short while later. "I have a cottage about an hour away that has started to look better and better. The nearby town is nice, I imagine you'd have liked the locals."

He turns 91 in a few months and he's finally realized that they are relics of an old war, and its time that they step back and let the history books and the new blood take over.

He wonders if Charles always knew that this would be the way their stories would end, if he knew that Erik would someday realize what he'd been running towards was all that he'd forsaken decades ago. That someday it'd all come full circle.You are not alone, Charles said once. Erik is beginning to see that it was always true.

He doesn't know what he and Charles had been to each other. Doesn't know if it matters what they were as long as they had been something. Ten years was a long time to think about someone. To miss them to the core of your very being.

"I'm tired, Charles," the wind wraps itself around him and he feels some of the ache dissipate. He smiles slightly, and the lines and wrinkles around his mouth and eyes soften. He wonders once more if Charles is watching.

He closed his eyes for a moment. As a little boy he believed in heaven without question, as a young man he discredited it with the same fever. Now—he doesn't know. But—it isn't an unpleasant thought to believe in something more again.

Sometimes he wonders if Charles knew that every time he walked away —and he had walked away from Charles over and over— that he wanted to say I love you, but could never get it out of his throat. He thinks that he must have.

"I miss you," and the wind seems to whisper this; I'm here, I'm here. I miss you too.

 

_It's been a long day without you, my friend._

_And I'll tell you all about it when I see you again_

_We've come a long way from where we began_

_Oh, I'll tell you all about it when I see you again_

_Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth 'See You Again'_

**Author's Note:**

> This was my first attempt at writing Erik and I hope I was able to keep him in character. What do you guys think? Anything that you can think of that can be improved upon in his characterization?


End file.
